Hinge



C. R. SUSKA Oct. 31, 1967 HINGE Filed Aug. 27, 1965 I N VEN TOR.

CHARLES R.- SUSKA BY MQZMJAMQ HIS ATTORNEYS United. States Patent 3,349,429 HINGE Charles R; Suska, Roxbury, Conn., assignor to 'Ihe Stanley Works, New Britain, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Filed Aug. 27, 1965, Ser. No. 483,229 9 Claims. (Cl. 16-128) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A hinge composed of two hinge elements, one of the elements having a threaded shank, a loop at one end of the shank and a cap member of low-friction plastic mounted in the loop and having a concave cavity in it, the other hinge member having a threaded shank and a downwardly directed pintle portion provided with a convex or ball-like end engaging in the cavity in the cap with the centers of the cavity and the convex end portion offset below the axis of the shank of the hinge element supporting the cap to resist disengagement of the hinge elements.

a This invention relates to hinge mounted door construc- ,tions and the like and particularly to improved, readily attached and adjustable hinges for facilitating the mounting and positioning of doors and the like in their frames.

Conventional hinges having leaves provided with a plurality of interfitting knuckles joined by a hinge pin or pintle have been used for many years for mounting doors in buildings, cabinets and the like. The butt type of hinge which is widely used requires the mortising of the door frame and the door to conceal the hinge leaves and enable a snug fit of the door in the door frame. Face mounted hinges do not require mortising but must be located and aligned accurately to center the door in the door frame with proper clearance and hinge pin alignment.

In some types of doors, for example, prehung storm doors, piano type hinges are used to support the door and maintain its alignment while the door frame is being mounted in a building opening. All of these hinges are satisfactory despite shortcomings which have become more apparent as the technology of building has improved and changed. All of these hinges present difficulties for the home craftsman, particularly in their installation and proper alignment and this is especially true of the butt type hinge which requires accurately located and formed mortises for receiving the hinge leaves. Likewise, even in factory assembled doors and door frames, such hinges present problems of alignment and location. In particular, the manufacture and installation of the prior hinges has involved a great deal of labor and time which add substantially to the cost of the door construction.

Another factor ofimportance in the hardware industry is the cost of transportation of such hinges particularly in relation to the competitive sales prices of such hinges. All 'of the above described hinges are heavy and bulky and consequently the cost of shipping from one part of the country where the hinges are manufact'ured'to another part of the country for use are high so that a manufacturer in one part of the country cannot compete with another manufacturer in or supplying another part of the country. v

Others have attempted to provide hinges of satisfactory appearance and light weight by forming the hinges of thin ner' or lighter weight materials but the changes in material and less attractive appearance of the hinges has offset their decreased shipping costs.

Simple hinges formed of inexpensive and readily available parts such as screw eyes have been used, for example,

in folding furniture, gate hinges and the like where appearance and accuracy of fit and positioning of parts are of no moment. However, these hinges have not been made as precision parts or of suitable appearance for such uses as door hinges, cabinet hinges and the like where an attractive appearance and satisfactory operation are essential.

In accordance with the present invention, hinges are provided which are composed of simple and inexpensive parts, such as, for example, screw eyes containing an insert type of socket made of a low-friction material for receiving a pintle in the form of a ball mounted on a threaded shank, these hinge members being assembled in such relation that a strong freely movable and precisely aligned and operating hinge assembly is obtained.

Hinges of the type embodying the present invention have many advantages over the prior art leaf type hinge in that ready and precise adjustment of pairs or multiple hinges is possible to bring them into accurate alignment and to locate a door accurately with respect to the door frame by screwing the screw eye and ball-carrying shank into the frame and door to greater or lesser extents. By use of a socket member having low friction properties the hinges, according to the present invention, operate silently and easily without lubrication and provide longer troublefree life under any and all normal service conditions. Moreover, hinges embodying the present invention can be readjusted easily even after installation to maintain proper door alignment if warpage of the door should occur or misalignment results from shifting of the building or other structure in which the hinges are used.

Moreover, the new hinges greatly facilitate the hanging of prehung doors by enabling the door to be packed with the frame and allowing the door to be unhinged readily from the frame to enable the frame to be attached in a building opening without the weight of the door thereon. Also, the new hinges are of such construction that when a door mounted with them is closed, it cannot be unhung or removed as is the case with doors having removable hinge pins or pintles.

Of great commercial significance is the fact that the new hinges are less bulky and much lighter in weight than leaf hinges of equivalent strength and hence can be shipped or transported from place to place and can be stored and handled. much more economically. Also, the new hinges can be readily installed by the home craftsman with a minimum of tools and experience and without the problems involved in mortising, aligning and positioning the hinges and the like which the ordinary home craftsman may be ill-equipped to solve.

In particular, some forms of the new hinges require only the predrilling of two holes which can be accomplished by means of a hand or electric drill and after installation of the hinges, precise alignment of the hinge pins of spaced apart hinges and proper positioning of a door in a door opening can be accomplished by screwing hinge members into and out of the holes.

, For a better understanding of the present invention, reference may be had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a partial front elevational view of a door installation embodying this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged cross-setcional view taken along line 3-3 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view similar to FIGURE 3 showing a modified form of a hinge made according to this invention;

FIGURE 5 is a top view of another modified form of the hinge of this invention;

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line 6-6 of FIGURE 5; and

FIGURE 7 is a side elevational view of another form of hinge, shown partially broken away, embodying the invention.

Referring now specifically to the drawings in which like numerals refer to like parts throughout the various figures, a door installation embodying this invention is shown in FIGURE 1 in which the door 10 is mounted for relative swinging movement to a door frame 12 by a pair of hinges 14.

Each of the hinges 14 comprises a pair of hinge members 16, 18, hinge member being a screw eye 16 having a threaded cylindrical shank 20, of uniform diameter from one end substantially to the other, which is screwed into a hole 22 in the door frame 12. As shown, it is readily apparent that, due to the uniform diameter of the shank 20, the screw eye 16 may be rotated to move it axially to adjust it relative to the door without materially re ducing its load carrying capacity.

The free end of the screw eye 16 is curved to form an annular loop or eye 24 which is disposed in alignment with the shank 20.

The other hinge member 18 also has a threaded cylindrical shank 26 of uniform diameter from one end substantially to the other and is screwed into an aperture 28 of the door 10. As illustrated, the threaded shank 26 projects in a generally horizontal direction from the door 10 and is provided at the outer end thereof with a pintle or leg 30 which is shown as being bent substantially at right angles to the axis of the shank 26. The pintle 30 terminates in an enlarged spherical ball 32 which can be integral with or afiixed to the leg 30.

Seated within the loop or eye 24 of the screw eye 16 is a removable cap or cup member 34 having a curved lip for engaging over the loop or eye 24. The central portion of the cap member 34 extends downwardly through the aperture of the loop 24 to provide a concave recess. The cap member 34 is dimensioned to closely fit within the loop 24 to eliminate relative radial movement therebetween and the concave recess is complementary to the ball portion 32 of the pintle 30. Both the ball 34 and the concave recess are preferably spherical to provide uniform engagement for transmitting loads therebetween throughout an area constituting one-half of a sphere. With such a construction, the centers of the ball 32 and the spherical recess of the cap 34 will be coincident. If desired, and as shown in FIGURE 3, a liner 38 preferably formed of a low friction, wear resistant material such as nylon, may be positioned in the concave cavity of the cap 34 which may be formed of metal.

An important feature of this invention is that the cap 34 extends substantially below the axis of the loop 24 of the hinge member 16, as viewed in FIGURE 3, so that the radial forces transmitted between the hinge members 16, 18 will be in a plane which is no higher than, and preferably below, the axis of the loop 24. In the embodiment illustrated in FIGURE 3, radial loading between the hinge members is supported in a plane which is below the axis of the screw eye 16 by the distance X. Thus, any radial force imposed by the door will tend to rotate the shank portion 20 in the direction which will prevent the withdrawal of ball portion 32 from the cap 34, and hence prevent the separation or disengagement of the hinge members.

As shown in FIGURE 2, the cap 34 may be provided with a cutout portion 40 which will engage the shank portion 20 to non-rotatably secure the cap to the screw eye 16.

In mounting the door 10 to the frame 12, the cylindrical shank portions of a pair of screw eyes 16 are secured to the door frame 12 and the shank portions of a pair of hinge members 18 are secured to the door 10 at the desired locations with the pintles 30 in axial alignment. Caps 34 are positioned in the loops 24 of the screw eyes 16 and the door is lifted to place the ball ends 32 of 4 the pintle in their assembled positions within the caps 34. As shown in FIGURE 3, the lips of the caps 34 are curved below the center of the loops 24 to releasably secure these parts together by a snap fit.

If the door 10 is not coplanar with its frame 12 or if the gap 11 between the door and door frame is not uniform from one end to the other, or balanced relative to the gap between the winging edge of the door and the frame, the hinges 14 may be adjusted by rotating One on more of the hinge members until the desired adjustment is achieved.

If desired, an apertured annular washer 37 may be mounted on the pintle 30 to prevent the entry of foreign matter into the sockets in the caps 34 as shown in FIG- URE 3.

With the hinges of this invention it is readily apparent that if either hinge member 16, 18 is skewed or the shanks thereof are not mounted in parallel relationship, the hinges will automatically compensate for such deviations without impairment of the operation of the hinge. Thus, this invention facilitates the mounting of the door to its frame by reducing the accuracy required in securing the hinge members to the door and door frame.

Referring now particularly to FIGURE 4, there is another embodiment of a hinge which may be utilized in the practice of this invention. In this embodiment, the loop 24a of a screw eye 16 is threaded on its inner periphery to receive an externally threaded cap 34a having .a socket Y therein. The cap 34a is preferably formed of a molded resilient low friction material, such as nylon, and its outer diameter is preferably dimensioned so as to create a slight interference fit when inserted into the loop 2411. Cap 34a may be provided with a screw driver slot 44 for raising or lowering the cap 34a relative to the loop 24a. The clamping forces between the loop 24a and the cap 3411 will serve to prevent relative rotation between these parts during normal door operation to retain the cap 34a in any adjusted position.

It will be understood that a pair of hinges of the embodiment of FIGURE 4 may be utilized to mount a single door or that one of the hinges of the embodiment of FIG- URE 4 may be used with a hinge of the embodiment of FIGURE 3 to compensate for inaccuracies in the distances between the screw eyes by changing the relative axial position of the thrust bearing surface of one of the hinges.

FIGURES 5 and 6 show a third embodiment of the hinge of this invention wherein the hinge is formed of a pair of identical screw eyes 50, 52. In this third embodiment, the upper screw eye 50 is shown as being provided with an insert 54 including a downwardly extending pintle having an enlarged ball-shaped end 56.

The lower screw eye 52 also receives an insert 58 which contains a concave recess or socket complementary to the ball-shaped end 56 of the pintle. The insert 58 is preferably formed of a molded low friction resilient material such as nylon. The inserts 54 and 58 have peripheral grooves 60 and 62, respectively, for securing the inserts in the respective eye screws.

Another embodiment of the hinge is shown in FIGURE 7. This hinge includes a screw eye 65 having an eye portion 66 in which is received a semi-spherical bearing member 67. Pressed in bushings 68 and 69 secure the member 67 in the eye portion 66 with capacity for relatively free universal rocking movement. The wall 70 of the eye portion may be slightly undercut or concave to retain the bushings in the eye portion.

A diametrical bore 71 in the bearing member 67 receives slidably a pintle 72 extending perpendicular to the threaded cylindrical shank 73 of the hinge member 74. A shoulder 75 .at the upper end of the pintle 72 positions the hinge member 74 with respect to the screw eye 65. This hinge is used in the same way as those described above and has the additional advantage of assuring alignment between spaced pairs of these hinges because the bearing member 67 permits relative universal movement between the hinge members 65 and 74.

As will be apparent to persons skilled in the art, various modifications and adaptations of the structure above described will become readily apparent without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the entire hinge 14 may be inverted and the hinge member 16 secured to the door and the hinge member 18 secured to the door frame 12. Also, a door may be mounted through the use of a hinge of this invention in combination with another hinge which carries radial loads only so as to stabilize the pivot axis of the door. Therefore, the scope and features of novelty which characterize the invention are defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In combination, a door member, a door frame member and a pair of hinges mounting the door member on the door frame member for relative swinging movement; at least one of said hinges comprising a pair of wireformed hinge members, each having a threaded cylindrical shank portion for securing the same to the door ,and door frame members, respectively, one of said hinge members having a spherical recess the center of which is positioned below the centerline of the shank portion thereof, the other of said hinge members having a pintle member terminating in a mating convex spherical surface positioned within said spherical recess to accommodate misalignment of the hinge members and to prevent the separation of the hinge members by lateral loading on the hinge.

2. In combination, a door member, a door frame member and a pair of hinges mounting the door member on the door frame member for relative pivotal movement; ,at least one of said hinges comprising a pair of hinge members, one of said hinge members having a threaded cylindrical shank potrion for securing the same to one of said door and door frame members and a loop at its free end, the other of said hinge members having means for mounting the same to the other of said door and door frame members, said other hinge member including a pintle having a large generally convex bearing surface and a cupshaped member having a spherical bottom portion mounted in said loop to provide a recess for receiving the convex bearing surface to support the door and to transmit radial forces between the hinge members along a plane further from said mounting means than the cylindrical shank portion.

3. The combination as recited in claim 2 wherein the spherical bottom portion of the cap is covered by a layer of low friction plastic material.

4. A hinge comprising a pair of hinge members, one of said hinge members being mountable on one of a pair of door and door frame members for coaction with the other hinge member mounted on the other of said door and frame members; one hinge member including a threaded cylindrical shank portion having a loop portion at its free end and a separable cap in said loop portion containing a spherical concave recess, and the other hinge member including a pintle member having a mating spherical convex thrust bearing surface positioned within said recess, the centers of said spherical surfaces being offset beyond the centerline of said cylindrical shank portion.

5. A hinge as recited in claim 4 wherein said loop portion of the one hinge member is internally threaded and said cap has an externally threaded surface mating with said internally threaded 'loop.

6. A hinge as recited in claim 5 wherein the cap is formed of plastic and said loop portion is discontinuous and dimensioned to apply a compressive force to the peripheral wall of the cap.

7. A hinge ,as recited in claim 4 wherein said cap has an annular peripheral recess for receiving said loop portion to secure the same together.

8. A hinge as recited in claim 7 wherein said cap is formed of a resilient, low friction plastic.

9. A hinge comprising a pair of hinge members each comprising a threaded cylindrical shank portion and a loop portion and an insert secured within the loop portion, the insert in one of said hinge members having a spherical concave recess therein, a pintle extending from the insert in the other hinge member and terminating in a mating spherical ball for engaging in the concave recess the centers of said ball and recess being offset to one side of both of said loop portions.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,517,205 11/1924 Flagg 16128 2,051,428 8/1936 Tatlow 16140 3,108,830 10/1963 Fierstine 287-87 3,266,123 8/ 1966 McCloskey 287-87 MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner. D. L. TROUTMAN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN COMBINATION, A DOOR MEMBER, A DOOR FRAME MEMBER AND A PAIR OF HINGES MOUNTING THE DOOR MEMBER ON THE DOOR FRAME MEMBER FOR RELATIVE SWINGING MOVEMENT; AT LEAST ONE OF SAID HINGES COMPRISING A PAIR OF WIREFORMED HINGE MEMBERS, EACH HAVING A THREADED CYLINDRICAL SHANK PORTION FOR SECURING THE SAME TO THE DOOR AND DOOR FRAME MEMBERS, RESPECTIVELY, ONE OF SAID HINGE MEMBERS HAVING A SPHERICAL RECESS THE CENTER OF WHICH IS POSITIONED BELOW THE CENTERLINE OF THE SHANK PORTION THEREOF, THE OTHER OF SAID HINGE MEMBERS HAVING A PINTLE MEMBER TERMINATING IN A MATING CONVEX SPHERICAL SURFACE POSITIONED WITHIN SAID SPHERICAL RECESS TO ACCOMMODATE MISALIGNMENT OF THE HINGE MEMBERS AND TO PREVENT THE SEPARATION OF THE HINGE MEMBERS BY LATERAL LOADING ON THE HINGE. 